Property Sectors Archives | Page 53 of 58

Jan 08 No Comments

Multi-Use Redevelopment Of Wynwood Industrial Sites OK’d

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Multifamily,Offices,Retail,Wynwood

A set of interconnected buildings is designed to bring a mix of residential, retail and office uses to a block in Wynwood, along with major murals and other art treatments and a large courtyard.

With a current title of Dorsey, the major mixed-use project is proposed by developer Weck 29th LLC for land at 2562/268/286 NW 29th St. and 2801 NW Third Ave.

The City of Miami’s Urban Development Review Board voted unanimously to recommend approval.

The venture is being touted as “a true live, work, and play environment.”

Designed by architectural firm Arquitectonica, Dorsey is to rise to 12 stories and include a building at eight stories, surrounding a landscaped courtyard for pedestrian mobility and activity.

The entire development will amount to 604,110 square feet, be home to 306 residences, 35,858 square feet of commercial-retail uses, 58,760 square feet of offices, and have parking levels to hold about 521 vehicles.

The site plan shows projected open space amounting to 16,293 square feet.

The property currently consists of industrial structures and surface parking, according to a letter to the city from Iris Escarra, an attorney representing Weck 29th LLC.

The site includes two adjoining properties with different zoning classifications, along with a special Neighborhood Revitalization District, or NRD-1 overlay, and a land designation of general commercial.

Approximately 32,831 square feet or .75-acre is zoned T5-0, and 56,030 square feet or 1.29 acres is in the T6-8-0 zoned area.

Ms. Escarra said the property fronts Northwest 28th Street to the south and Northwest 29th Street to the north, comprising the property’s principal frontages. Northwest Third Avenue abuts the property to the west, and also serves as a principal frontage.

“The proposed project is an infill project adjacent to two highly traversed streets, NW 29th Street and NW 3rd Avenue,” she wrote. “The Property is located within the Wynwood neighborhood, which has seen a rapid growth over the last few years as it transforms from an industrial neighborhood to an arts and culture destination. The Project seeks to redevelop the industrial structures and provide Residential, Office, and Commercial Uses throughout the Property.”

Discussing details of the project with the review board at its December meeting was attorney Brian A. Dombrowski, also representing the developer, who introduced architect Raymond Fort.

The review board’s liaison, city planner Joseph Eisenberg, gave a background report on the project and noted that the NRD-1 gave the body broader review authority.

This project was also reviewed by the Wynwood Development Review Committee, which granted conditional approval Nov. 12, including asking the applicant to reconsider the proposed artwork screening on the northern garage levels, Mr. Eisenberg said.

Mr. Dombrowski said the developer is excited to bring this mixed-use project to a former industrial site in Wynwood with three frontages.

“We have a large courtyard,” he said, “retail uses on the ground floor, and a large pedestrian crosswalk … it fits the work-live-play vision, and there will be a lot of art opportunities.”

Mr. Fort showed site plans and project renderings, noting the design took into account promoting walkability in the neighborhood.

The architecture also uses rectangular cubic forms and alternating colors to help break up the façade, he said.

There’s not much shade in Wynwood, said Mr. Fort, so the site plan calls for bringing some shade trees in with a landscaping plan that includes palms and evergreens.

Board member Ligia Ines Labrada said the presentation was nicely done and she commended the developer’s team for providing access and cross sections with plenty of retail frontages, which she said will create a phenomenal urban experience.

“I have nothing but compliments for the project,” she said.

Board member Robert Behar said, “I also like the project. You’ve done a very nice job with it.”

Board member Ignacio Permuy was also a fan, commending the “exceptional” design.

“Terrific job,” was the assessment of board member Willy Bermello.

“I’ll vote for it. I really like how you resolved every aspect … I like the massing and articulation, particularly on the ground floor … I don’t have any concerns or objections,” said Mr. Bermello.

But board member Neil Hall was critical of the project. By bringing residential into Wynwood in this fashion, he said, “you destroy the brand.” It goes against the years of work to develop this neighborhood as a special area for “creativity and funkiness,” Mr. Hall said.

“The building you created looks more like it’s coming out of New York – I don’t see a Miami theme …,” Mr. Hall said. “The same thing happened in Midtown. We put up 30-story buildings and destroyed the feeling of Midtown.”

Board member Fidel Perez differed from Mr. Hall.

“You did an excellent job breaking up the uses,” Mr. Perez said. “This project is really well designed.”

Source: Miami Today

Jan 07 No Comments

Berkadia’s Charles Foschini On The Florida CRE Market

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Development,Healthcare,Leasing,Multifamily,Offices,Trends

Berkadia’s active presence in Florida’s CRE debt scene owes no small part to Charles Foschini, who co-heads its originations in the state from the company’s office in downtown Miami. The University of Miami graduate, who spent nearly two decades at CBRE, has led some of Berkadia’s biggest Florida deals since he joined the company in 2016. Among them is a $121.5 million acquisition loan that helped Parkway Properties and Partners Group buy a set of six Tampa office buildings late last month. The firm has also been a key player in multifamily capital markets, putting it on the cutting edge of Florida’s changing demographics.

Foschini spoke with Commercial Observer by phone to discuss everything from the Sunshine State’s sunny skies to its business climate, transportation struggles and even its school system.

Commercial Observer: In a nutshell, what are your responsibilities at Berkadia?

Charles Foschini: I co-lead Florida operations in both a management and production role. I focus on a group of clients [for whom] I do a fair amount of their business … and that runs the gamut of any of their capital-market needs, from permanent loans to construction loans to bridge loans.

Florida’s shown a lot of momentum lately — throughout the state, but particularly around Miami. What do you see as some of the driving factors?

When I studied at the University of Miami, it wasn’t lost on me that the temperature was 78 degrees all the time. It’s a very enviable place to live, work and play. But you have to layer over that that our last two governors [Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott] have been very pro-business. We’ve had a lot of growth in the medical sector and a lot of employment growth. It’s not just a tourism economy anymore.

Berkadia has been a force behind some significant multifamily debt deals in the state this year. How is the state’s apartment market evolving?

We’re seeing unrelenting population growth and immigration to the state, and we’re seeing a continued evolution of employment. Some of the bigger submarkets have a lot of transportation challenges. Those factors have formed a confluence to create a need for multifamily near where people are going to work. That’s created a lot of new developments in suburban and urban markets. What’s more, the individual credit consumer has been harder to come by: Not as many people have been buying houses in this cycle. That has created a renewed demand for lifestyle residential, where people can get all the amenities that you couldn’t frankly afford or justify in your own home.

Reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been a never-ending discussion in Washington. Do you have any concerns?

Fannie and Freddie have been market leaders in multifamily finance, and they have very healthy allocations for 2020. I expect that to continue. But having said that, the economy and capital market side is extremely vibrant. You have CMBS lenders, banks, life companies and debt funds, all of which are available to a borrower in any given transactions. They’ll continue to have a significant market share in multifamily, too.

You mentioned some transportation challenges. Do you think the state’s urban areas need to become more commutable?

The demand for a live-work-play lifestyle is fueled both by millennials as well as those folks that are selling homes and moving back to the cities. They want to have everything in one place. The new Brightline train [which now connects Miami and West Palm Beach, Fla.] is so much more convenient than it was 20 years ago when you had to get in your car and commute. As South Florida and particularly Miami evolve as 24-hour cities, that means you have 24-hour traffic. Mass transit is a solution to that.

You mentioned that the state’s politicians have fostered a business-friendly reputation. How specifically has that helped drive new investment in the state?

One of Berkadia’s technology tools looks at IRS tax payments from one year to another. You can pick somewhere in the Northeast — anywhere in the Northeast — and look at the tax migration. For example, if you paid your taxes in 2018 in Connecticut and then in 2019, you paid your taxes in Florida, that net migration has been measured, potentially, in billions of dollars, and that’s continuing. In many cases, the Northeast is losing out to where it’s easier to live, easier to do business and where overall taxation on the same work dollar is lower. Florida is a huge beneficiary of that. Then there’s the fact that submarkets like Orlando and Tampa have very, very nice campus-style offices that rent for a lot less per square foot.

People often speak of talent pools as one of the deepest strengths of gateway cities like New York and L.A. How is Florida doing on that front?

I would say it’s evolving, and not fast enough. Our private school systems are exceptional. The Florida state schools are getting better. Five years ago, most of them didn’t have real estate programs, but now they all do. But the public school systems here for primary grades are not evolving fast enough. As our population grows, they’re not evolving at a pace to support that population. So that’s a challenge that municipalities continue to address.

Source: Commercial Observer

Jan 03 No Comments

Hospitals Across US Investing In Real Estate To Help With Homelessness, Mental Health

Author: Admin

Categories: Development,Healthcare,Trends

Some hospitals are getting into real estate.

The reason? Cut skyrocketing healthcare costs and improve patients’ prognoses.

Peg Burnette, Chief Financial Officer at Denver Health, says they have about 30 patients a month who do not have somewhere to go after treatment at the Level 1 trauma center. Reasons range from homelessness, to dementia, mental health and other problems. Having a safe discharge is required. Generally, hospitals cannot simply push patients out the door because of ethics, malpractice and Medicare rules.

“Insurance will not pay after a patient’s immediate needs have been treatet,” Burnette says, “We could be receiving revenue from a patient who needs hospitalization, but instead. we’re covering the cost of that patient occupying a bed.”

That means fewer available beds to the community when someone cannot be discharged.

Denver Health has partnered with Denver Housing Authority to renovate and reopen a dormant building on the hospital campus. When complete, it will be low income senior housing, but a floor will be leased back to the hospital. Fifteen units will be dedicated to people occupying beds at Denver Health. After their hospital stay, they will be temporarily placed on the floor, while permanent housing is coordinated.

Each stay runs an average of $2,700 a day at Denver Health. As a safety net hospital, it has a mission to take care of all patients, regardless of ability to pay. The hospital has crunched the numbers. Providing transitional housing will save quite a bit, considering patients in limbo have overstayed anywhere from a dozen to more than a 1,500 extra days. Temporary housing will cost $10,000 a year, per resident.

“The first step is to identify those in unstable situations,” Denver Health Hospitalist Physician Dr. Sarah A. Stella said. “Information given at admission can be inaccurate and the signs are not always obvious. They know you can’t fix it, but they appreciate being asked. And asking about that leads us to take better care of people. Recovery continues after the hospital stay. It can be much more difficult to heal or manage chronic conditions if patients are worried about their next meal or sleeping on the street. When I see patients who are controlling their diabetes or doing a pretty good job of it, despite their homelessness, I want to give them a big hug. I want to give them a medal, because that is really an impossibility.”

University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health) has also put money into the housing problem. Its Better Health Through Housing partnership with the Center for Housing and Health started with $250,000. It works to move patients from emergency rooms into housing with “intensive case management.” The pilot started with 26 patients and by next year, it expects to house 75 patients.

Dr. Stephen Brown, Director of Preventive Emergency Medicine at University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago, echoed the same concern as Dr. Stella in Denver.

“Homelessness tends to be invisible in health care,” Dr. Brown said.

Brown noted that hospitals operate on thin margins and do not go looking for problems,

“But if you begin to document it, you will find it. And if you find that, you have to do something about it,” said Dr. Brown.

The hospital went through its records dating back to the late 1990s and found evidence of 10,000 patients believed to be homeless. According to research cited in a report by the American Hospital Association (AHA), health inequities are projected to cost the health care system $126 billion by 2020.

“On average, those with unstable housing have a life expectancy 27 years less than those with stable housing.” says AHA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jay Bhatt.

AHA’s Hospital Community Cooperative Program is working in 10 markets across the country to address social needs.

“Investing in housing solutions could help cut down on burnout among providers because care teams can see patient success,” Bhatt adds,

As for the future of programs like the one in Chicago, Brown said he envisions coordinated care across the criminal justice system, first responders, city agencies and more.

“We’re just a hospital and we’re a player in this,” Brown said. “But it really requires a cross-sector approach to solving this really kind of wicked problem in society.”

In the end, these initiatives can save money for all patients and taxpayers.

“When we have patients who we don’t have funds to cover, we have to receive more money from insurance and there’s been a lot of talk about the cost shift,” Burnette said. “As consumers, we want to pay lower premiums and I think this is a good way to start to get at that issue.”

Click here to view Fox News video ‘Hospitals Across The Country Look To Expand Housing For Homeless Patients‘

Source: Fox News

Jan 02 No Comments

Multifamily Investors See This As ‘The Biggest Risk To Our Industry’

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Multifamily,Trends

Local governments from New York to California have moved forward with new rent control laws this year in an attempt to address the housing affordability crisis. But multifamily investors say the laws are pushing them away from those markets, and they fear the trend could spread to other cities.

New York in June passed a law expanding rent regulations that affect nearly 1 million apartments in New York City, which was widely condemned in the commercial real estate industry. Oregon in February passed the nation’s first statewide rent control bill and California followed suit last month with passage of its own statewide rent control law.

TruAmerica Multifamily co-Chief Investment Officer Matt Ferrari, whose firm has over 40,000 units under management across 11 U.S. states, including California and Oregon, said the new laws are hurting those markets. He said they disincentivize owners from renovating properties, depress property values and decrease investment. He said he already sees capital fleeing those markets, and he is worried about more markets expanding rent control.

“It’s probably the biggest risk to our industry is this having a contagion effect from these deep blue states, New York and California, and eventually spreading across the country,” Ferrari said Thursday at Bisnow’s Multifamily Annual Conference East in D.C. “It could really impact our business long term.”

D.C. is currently considering expanding its rent regulations. The District has a law in place that passed in the 1980s and regulates rent for about 80,000 apartments built before 1975. But that is down significantly from a peak of 130,000 rent-controlled units, and the remaining 80,000 could become market-rate units next year if the D.C. Council doesn’t extend the law.

Council Member Anita Bonds, who chairs the D.C. Council’s housing committee, introduced a bill to extend the rent regulations to 2030 and is scheduled to hold a hearing on it Wednesday. In addition to expanding the program, activists are calling for the D.C. Council to adopt more aggressive rent control measures that would lower the rent increase cap, cover all buildings constructed before 2005 and make all new units subject to rent control after 15 years.

The D.C. Building Industry Association has come out against these proposals, arguing it would make it harder for the city to reach Mayor Muriel Bowser’s goal of building 36,000 new housing units by 2025.

“Rent control exacerbates the housing shortage because it does not do anything to address why rents are rising,” DCBIA CEO Lisa Maria Mallory wrote in a Washington Business Journal op-ed last week. “The one issue that nearly every economist agrees is that rent control just makes housing worse.”

Some investors are already shying away from the D.C. area for fear of new rent control laws, Melnick Real Estate Advisors founder Scott Melnick said. He said he recently had a buyer seeking to invest $110M as part of a 1031 exchange deal, and they limited their search to less-regulated states like Georgia, Texas and Florida.

“We’re seeing people want to skip over this region because they know it’s coming,” Melnick said of rent control. “Investors now are not just looking at the House and the Senate, they’re looking at the county council and how it’s made up to see what’s coming.” Harbor Group International Director of Acquisitions Matt Jones, whose firm has a nationwide portfolio of 33,000 multifamily units, also said he expects stronger rent control laws to be enacted in the D.C. area.

“We’re definitely seeing capital that used to be New York City multifamily-focused fleeing that regulatory environment,” Jones said. “My view is that regulatory environment is following them down I-95, and we’re not a decade away from those concerns in many of the markets down here.”

FCP principal Jason Bonderenko said several of his recent deals have involved buyers fleeing the New York City market, likely because of rent control.

“I can tell you we recently sold properties in Philadelphia, [D.C.], Atlanta, the Carolinas, and it was all New York buyers on all those deals,” Bonderenko said. “That trend is happening in a very big way.”

The Donaldson Group CEO Carlton Einsel, whose portfolio is largely concentrated in the D.C. area, said politicians support rent control because they want to appear to be tackling the affordable housing issue, even if most economists agree it is not an effective solution. He said it is up to commercial real estate leaders to come up with better solutions to the problem before more governments enact rent control.

“There is an affordable housing issue, and as an industry we have to do something to help solve it, because if we can’t, it will be solved for us by politicians that are going to do rent control,” Einsel said.

Jefferson Apartment Group CEO Jim Butz said he sees housing affordability and rising rents in major cities as an important issue, but he said cities trying to address it with rent control laws are only creating new problems. He is worried about the increased regulations spreading across the East Coast.

“One of the bigger trends we have to be careful about in Washington, in Philly, obviously in New York, and a little bit in Boston, is rent control,” Butz said. “That would potentially shut down the market and really put a chill on institutional investment.”

Morgan Properties President Jonathan Morgan, one of the region’s most active multifamily buyers in recent years, said rent control measures are forcing investment firms like his to expand to less-regulated markets.

“We’re concerned about rent control as well,” Morgan said, after hearing several other investors express their concerns. “The affordability issue in this country is not going away any time soon, but rent control I think is the wrong solution … it’s making a lot of the owners like us and others invest in new markets.”

The criticism of rent control at Thursday’s event was not limited to investors that own apartments — a federal government official also referred to the local laws as having harmful consequences.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Deputy Chief of Staff Alfonso Costa Jr. cited reports from the National Multifamily Housing Council and Stanford University that detail the negative impacts of rent control.

“Although rent control in the short-term might reduce displacement, it can have a very deleterious impact on housing supply and prices,” Costa said. “You have landlords that are going to be less likely to address capital repair needs, that will defer maintenance and will turn their rental units into owner-occupied units and sell them. Ultimately it can have a very adverse impact and unintended consequences.”

Costa joined NHMC CEO Doug Bibby and U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Todd Young (R-IN) on the event’s keynote panel. The senators did not discuss rent control, but stay tuned for more coverage on the ideas they raised to address housing affordability.

Source: Bisnow

Dec 31 No Comments

Rebuilding Flagler Was A Mess. Officials Think This Policy Will Help Future Projects.

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Retail

Almost a year after a painfully disruptive and often delayed makeover of Flagler Street concluded, politicians and Florida’s transportation agency are sending a message to wary merchants, neighbors and commuters: It won’t happen that way again.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has changed its philosophy on how to mount street reconstruction projects in dense urban settings without causing the kind of grief that came with the 2 1/2-year Flagler redo. Some merchants went out of business when customers had trouble getting to their doors after parking spaces were replaced by piles of dirt and debris. Torn-up roads created hazards for pedestrians, especially seniors.

Florida Sen. José Javier Rodríguez, D-Miami, met with officials from the state agency and Miami-Dade Commissioner Eileen Higgins this week to discuss the new policy and how to best approach any improvements to state-owned roads, including potential upgrades to Southwest Eighth Street, the thoroughfare better known as Calle Ocho.

Kevin J. Thibault, Florida’s secretary of transportation, told the South Florida politicians that his department plans to limit construction zones to minimize their impact on small businesses and the parking spaces they depend on. Under the new policy, the state will require contractors to finish one limited phase of a project before starting the next one.

“We would only take out of service one block at a time,” Thibault said during the meeting.

On the heels of the Flagler project that scarred Little Havana proprietors, Rodríguez sent FDOT a letter in March asking for a new policy. Thibault, who was appointed secretary in January by Gov. Ron DeSantis, made the new statewide policy effective June 2. The guidelines are intended to help small businesses survive construction outside their front doors and people who walk around the neighborhood.

Contractors will also have to ensure pedestrians can safely navigate construction zones during the work, a requirement that will be factored into the project’s design. Engineers would also need to do a better job identifying what utility lines may be underground during the design phase so when the road is ripped apart, there are fewer surprises that delay the work.

“We cannot forget the Flagler construction nightmare nor afford to repeat it, and a new policy FDOT developed at my request aims to prevent that,” said Rodríguez, after the meeting. “Pedestrians, small businesses, neighbors and vulnerable road users need to be a priority during road construction.”

A makeover of Miami’s famous Calle Ocho could be on the horizon, but Rodríguez and Higgins said Little Havana property owners are worried in the wake of the problems that plagued Flagler. Higgins was a vocal FDOT critic during the Flagler project, which was completed by Russell Engineering and overseen by consultant Pinnacle Consulting.

Higgins, who took to regularly inspecting the Flagler construction site herself to pressure contractors, remained skeptical after the meeting. She was encouraged by the new policy, but she, along with Rodríguez, said FDOT needs to do better outreach to property owners to identify what they want out of road improvements well before final designs are cemented, from door-to-door visits and one-on-one meetings to community-wide gatherings.

“You have to know what people need for their street,” she said.

Even still, Higgins said FDOT has a lot of work to do to win the trust of Calle Ocho property owners, merchants and neighbors after the Flagler nightmare.

“I don’t think there is an appetite for another construction project right now,” she said.

Source: Miami Herald

Dec 27 No Comments

Does Wynwood Really Need More Office And Retal Space? This Developer Thinks So.

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Development,Offices,Retail,Wynwood

Foot traffic is booming on Wynwood’s busy Northwest 24th Street. Now, developers are eyeing the Northwest 28th Street corridor as the next neighborhood hot spot.

The Wynwood-based development firm Fortis Design + Build told the Miami Herald it has two projects planned for the strip: a 15,000-square-foot office/retail center and a 50,000-square-foot commercial space whose use has not yet been finalized.

“We feel that 28th Street is the next 24th Street. That’s why we are so interested in this area,” said David Polinsky, Ph.D. and partner of Fortis Design + Build. “It’ll look like a complete neighborhood within three years.”

The smaller, two-story building, at 2734 NW First Ave., is expected to open in 2020 and cost under $6 million. It will offer 5,000 square feet of ground floor retail space, 5,000 square feet of office space on the second floor and 5,000 square feet of entertainment or amenity space on the roof top. Each floor will have 22-foot ceilings should a tenant want to expand and add a mezzanine.

Jason Chandler, chair of Florida International University’s architecture department, is designing the exterior and interiors. The City of Miami hired ArquitectonicaGEO to design a one-way road and pedestrian-friendly street adjacent to the project.

“You get a Lincoln Road-style experience but in Wynwood,” Polinsky said.

Fortis has submitted for permits, said Polinsky, and should break ground by late January. The building may have a single office tenant and three retail tenants or a single tenant that leases the entire building. “We’ll make our decision on who the tenant or tenants will be once we break ground,” Polinsky said.

The larger, 8-story building at 82 NW 28th St. is still in the design phase, said Polinsky. Groundbreaking is scheduled for 2021.

Wynwood has experienced a boom in office space since 2018, part of Miami’s overall office construction boom that is the largest since 2009.

A growing customer base is driving more developers to Wynwood, Jonathan Rosen, senior associate at JLL, said.

“The key demand is the customer base from tourists and new residents.”

And it’s not over.

“If you compare Wynwood to other submarkets like Brickell,” Rosen said, “Wynwood still has room to grow.”

Source: Miami Herald

Dec 24 No Comments

Miami Retail Is Healthy, Thanks To Its Increasingly Urban Landscape

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Retail

Miami’s commercial real estate market is exceedingly healthy across all asset classes and — despite what some headlines will tell you — retail is no exception. Market fundamentals and demand balance point to continued growth, with limited downside in sight.

Miami is a unique market in that it is a major national metropolitan statistical area (MSA) that benefits from year-round tourism while also possessing a substantial “shadow population,” both domestic and international, which contributes significantly to the local economy. At the national level, discount, convenience and service-oriented retailers are among the strongest; in Miami, retailers across the board are performing well, from Dollar Tree to Tiffany & Co.

This overall health, however, doesn’t mean Miami’s retail market isn’t experiencing some changes. As the local landscape evolves, retailers are adapting to meet ever-changing consumer needs and expectations.

As Miami grows, the region is facing new challenges related primarily to transportation, a lack of available land for new retail development and the changing demography of the area. In the next five years, 136,000 new residents will move to Miami-Dade County, and that figure only accounts for permanent residents. With the projected population increases, the need for additional infrastructure improvements to accommodate growth will impact the retail environment. For Miami-Dade to support current and future population needs, the city’s retail landscape and the way people navigate access to it will change.

To combat transportation challenges, consumers will make a lifestyle choice to live closer to where they work. We can expect an emergence of self-contained nodes, or micro-markets, that contain a critical mass of office, housing and retail space. These “villages” will give the consumer the ability to live, work, recreate and shop all within all within immediate proximity and without spending hours a day in the car. Many neighborhoods are already headed in this direction: Brickell, Downtown, Wynwood, Aventura, Merrick Park and South Miami.

Retailers are evolving to meet this new model of “hyperlocalism” by opening more locations that are smaller than traditional stores in order to serve a higher number of densely populated areas. This model also supports Miami’s diminishing availability of developable land, as most existing neighborhoods are already built-up and cannot support typical suburban retail construction. Almost all of the new retail premises developed in Miami are being delivered as part of mixed-use projects, which may have ground-floor retail with office, multifamily or hospitality above.

While many large metros across the country are seeing store closures, Miami continues to see net positive openings. Historically, retailers have found that as they build out their footprint in Miami, they end up with more units than originally projected. While this is certainly true among smaller-size operators, we continue to see this among “big-box” retailers as well.

New deliveries of big-box stores are evolving to have smaller floor plates and structured parking. Stores like Target, Walmart and Publix are all building smaller-sized units where shoppers are likely to use a basket instead of a shopping cart. We will continue to see flexibility on the part of the big-box users as they are required to adapt store size to the envelopes available to them.

In summary, Miami’s retail environment remains extremely vibrant and healthy. Increased density and verticality will continue to drive new unit opportunities for retailers as the consumer chooses to live a more urban lifestyle.

MIAMI RETAIL AT A GLANCE

▪ Total shopping center inventory: 56,942,914 square feet.

▪ Total vacancy: 3.5% (That means almost 97 percent of all “doors” are occupied.)

▪ Deliveries in the past 12 months, in square feet: 147,582

▪ No. of square feet under construction: 1,594,938

▪ Net absorption in the past 12 months (space that was vacant that’s now occupied): 60,017 square feet.

▪ Average asking rent (net-net-net, or NNN): $31.64 per square foot

Source: Miami Herald

Dec 20 No Comments

A Trend Is Breathing New Life Into Big, Empty Department Stores

Author: Admin

Categories: Healthcare,Retail,Trends

Turning abandoned mall space such as the closed Sears store in the RedBird development in Dallas into medical offices and clinics is a new use for tired shopping centers that has already found success in other cities.

RedBird owner Peter Brodsky just announced that UT Southwestern and Parkland Hospital are taking over vacant retail space at the former Red Bird Mall. UT Southwestern will open offices in a 150,000-square-foot Sears store that closed earlier this year. About 43,000 square feet of a Dillard’s store that closed in 2008 is already being retrofitted for Parkland.

Dallas developer Frank Mihalopoulos, who has been working with Brodsky since 2015 on the RedBird project, has already successfully adding university-affiliated medical offices to aging malls in Nashville; York, Pa.; and Atlanta.

“Selling the RedBird development to local health care companies became a priority as community needs and wishes matched up with trends in the mall redevelopment business,” Brodsky said.

“Health care companies want to reach underserved populations and are trying to find ways to serve more people with the least amount of cost,” Mihalopoulos said. “Repurposing mall space can keep costs down. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, for example, has opened occupational therapy clinics and back offices in 22,000 square feet of the West Manchester Mall in York, Pennsylvania It’s lowered their overall cost of occupancy, and then the university medical center is able to rent its space that can fetch higher rents to others.”

In Atlanta, Emory Healthcare agreed in October to lease 224,000 square feet of a former Sears store at Northlake Mall to house offices for 1,600 administrative staff. That also adds daytime traffic to the mall, which is anchored by J.C. Penney and Macy’s. Northlake and the mall in Pennsylvania are owned by ATR Corinth, a partnership of Mihalopoulos and Dallas real estate investor Tony Ruggeri formed 15 years ago to redevelop ailing malls.

“Mall locations have a lot of what medical clinics and offices need,” Mihalopoulos said. “There’s parking, good real estate with good exposure to freeway locations. Old department stores have high ceilings that office tenants are looking for these days and those new office workers can shop and eat without leaving the property.”

ATR Corinth’s first big success was in Nashville, where Vanderbilt University Medical Center put administrative offices and medical clinics in One Hundred Oaks Mall.

“That project began in 2008, and within five years of the redevelopment, the stores in the center had experienced sales increases of as much as 100%,” Mihalopoulos said.

While they were considering the RedBird development, UT Southwestern officials visited that project. They also visited the Jackson Medical Mall in Mississippi, which was converted from a shopping mall in 1996 after it lost customers and stores to a newer mall in Jackson.

At that point, Red Bird Mall was also well into its decline. The former mall at the intersection of Highway 67 and Interstate 20 in Dallas was one of the early shopping center casualties. Several Dallas mayors and out-of-town owners tried to fix the center as the mall continued to lose traffic. There are 800 vacant anchor spots at the 1,300 malls and outlet centers in the U.S., according to an updated mall report from Green Street. In addition to health care uses, malls have been turned into call centers and even Amazon warehouses. When Brodsky first purchased the mall, Sears and Macy’s were still open.

“But it became apparent that anchor stores would have to be filled with other sorts of activities to draw people to the property,” Brodsky said. “The shopping center still has about 60 tenants, from Burlington Coat Factory to small mom-and-pop businesses that are doing well. A Foot Locker is under construction in a new green space being built on the Camp Wisdom side where Starbucks opened last year. I’m new to the real estate industry and I give Frank a lot of credit for his track record of converting malls into highly productive office space.”

Source: Dallas News

Dec 18 No Comments

Eco-Friendly Wynwood Hotel Planned For Art by God Site

Author: Admin

Categories: Commercial News,Development,Multifamily,Wynwood

A new eco-friendly hotel is expected to break ground on the site of the Art by God store in Wynwood.

Miami Beach-based Lucky Shepherd, co-founded by Christine Menedis and Naveen Trehan, will develop Shepherd Eco Wynwood at 60 Northeast 27th Street, joining a number of other hotels that have been proposed in the neighborhood. Hoar Program Management is the contractor on the project.

Touzet Studio is designing the 150-key hotel and Gensler is designing the interiors. In addition to hotel rooms, Shepherd Eco Wynwood will also have up to 48 residential units, according to a press release. The building will feature an outdoor amenity deck with a treehouse, a spa and wellness center, art gallery, rooftop pool and bar, speakeasy, and farm-to-table restaurant called Shepherd Farms.

Construction will begin in the summer. The hotel is expected to open in late 2022.

Source: The Real Deal

Dec 16 No Comments

After 72 Years On Flagler Street, Kirk Jewelers Is Moving Out

Author: Admin

Categories: Leasing,Retail

After 72 years of selling diamonds, watches and rings from its historic jewelry district location, Kirk Jewelers is saying goodbye to Flagler Street and moving to Brickell.

The luxury jewelry retailer is closing its location at 142 E. Flagler St. due to a decline in foot traffic over the past 10 years. It will reopen at Brickell City Centre at 701 S. Miami Ave. by late December.

The store will occupy a smaller space, and pay ‘significantly more’ in rent, according to co-president of Kirk Jewelers Allison Newbauer Strongin.

But, Newbauer Strongin said, she expects to see more customers than on Flagler Street.

“There’s a lot of energy right now happening across the river,” she said.

The store currently spans 4,000 square feet, with a showroom of 1,500 square feet. Kirk Jewelers’ new home will cover a total of 3,000 square feet, with a 2,000-square-foot showroom.

Newbauer Strongin did not disclose rent information. But, according to the Miami-Dade County Retail Third Quarter 2019 Colliers International Report, the average direct asking rate for Downtown Miami is $46.01 per square foot and $63.44 per square foot in Brickell.

“You need to ink out the showroom to make up for the rents,” she said.

The move will draw Kirk Jewelers closer to the store’s customer base, with the majority already coming from Brickell. It will also allow the team to sell to more tourists, Newbauer Strongin said, a customer base that she’s seen decline on Flagler Street.

“Brickell City Centre has seen an increase with South Americans and Europeans,” she said. “Brickell City Centre will allow us to tap into both the locals and tourists, especially the Brazilian market.”

The hours at the mall also encouraged the move. The store on Flagler is currently open six days a week during regular business hours. It closes by 5:30 p.m., because Newbauer Strongin said “it doesn’t make sense to be open more than that on Flagler.”

But at Brickell City Centre, Kirk Jewelers will run daily from morning until 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m., depending on the day.

“We calculated that with longer store hours we’d be open to an equivalent of three to four months more,” Newbauer Strongin said.

Kirk Jewelers was established in 1947 by Newbauer Strongin’s grandfather Julian Sr., a wholesale businessman from New York City. Four generations later, Newbauer Strongin runs the business alongside her brother Jeff Newbauer.

The Downtown Development Authority is prioritizing filling vacancies, especially in the historic jewelry district, with services catering to a growing residential population, said the Downtown Development Authority Deputy Director Christina Crespi.

Greater Downtown — which includes Brickell, the Central Business District, and Arts & Entertainment — has 92,000 residents today, Crespi said. By 2021, the DDA expects 110,000 residents to live in the area.

“Our priority is quality of life, that’s part of an evolving economy,” Crespi said. “For Flagler, our recruitment focus has been tech companies, cafes, bars and restaurants.”

The streetscape improvement plans starting in Flagler in 2020 are part of the quality-of-life enhancements. The plans, in the works since 2011, will include widened sidewalks, extra lighting and greenery.

“The city has over the last few years had a renewed interest in our historic districts,” Carlos R. Lago, a member of the Land Development practice in Greenberg Traurig’s Miami office. “In general, there’s a bit of growing pains with street improvements but everyone is happy at the end.”

The addition of pedestrian-friendly streets is likely to attract more foot traffic and more retail businesses back to Flagler in the future.

Source: Miami Herald

“We have a large courtyard,” he said, “retail uses on the ground floor, and a large pedestrian crosswalk … it fits the work-live-play vision, and there will be a lot of art opportunities.”

“I have nothing but compliments for the project,” she said.

Board member Robert Behar said, “I also like the project. You’ve done a very nice job with it.”

“Terrific job,” was the assessment of board member Willy Bermello.

“I’ll vote for it. I really like how you resolved every aspect … I like the massing and articulation, particularly on the ground floor … I don’t have any concerns or objections,” said Mr. Bermello.

But board member Neil Hall was critical of the project. By bringing residential into Wynwood in this fashion, he said, “you destroy the brand.” It goes against the years of work to develop this neighborhood as a special area for “creativity and funkiness,” Mr. Hall said.

“The building you created looks more like it’s coming out of New York – I don’t see a Miami theme …,” Mr. Hall said. “The same thing happened in Midtown. We put up 30-story buildings and destroyed the feeling of Midtown.”

“You did an excellent job breaking up the uses,” Mr. Perez said. “This project is really well designed.”

“Insurance will not pay after a patient’s immediate needs have been treatet,” Burnette says, “We could be receiving revenue from a patient who needs hospitalization, but instead. we’re covering the cost of that patient occupying a bed.”

“Homelessness tends to be invisible in health care,” Dr. Brown said.

“But if you begin to document it, you will find it. And if you find that, you have to do something about it,” said Dr. Brown.

“On average, those with unstable housing have a life expectancy 27 years less than those with stable housing.” says AHA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jay Bhatt.

“Investing in housing solutions could help cut down on burnout among providers because care teams can see patient success,” Bhatt adds,

“We’re just a hospital and we’re a player in this,” Brown said. “But it really requires a cross-sector approach to solving this really kind of wicked problem in society.”

“When we have patients who we don’t have funds to cover, we have to receive more money from insurance and there’s been a lot of talk about the cost shift,” Burnette said. “As consumers, we want to pay lower premiums and I think this is a good way to start to get at that issue.”

“We’re definitely seeing capital that used to be New York City multifamily-focused fleeing that regulatory environment,” Jones said. “My view is that regulatory environment is following them down I-95, and we’re not a decade away from those concerns in many of the markets down here.”

“I can tell you we recently sold properties in Philadelphia, [D.C.], Atlanta, the Carolinas, and it was all New York buyers on all those deals,” Bonderenko said. “That trend is happening in a very big way.”

“There is an affordable housing issue, and as an industry we have to do something to help solve it, because if we can’t, it will be solved for us by politicians that are going to do rent control,” Einsel said.

“One of the bigger trends we have to be careful about in Washington, in Philly, obviously in New York, and a little bit in Boston, is rent control,” Butz said. “That would potentially shut down the market and really put a chill on institutional investment.”

“We would only take out of service one block at a time,” Thibault said during the meeting.

“You have to know what people need for their street,” she said.

“I don’t think there is an appetite for another construction project right now,” she said.

“We feel that 28th Street is the next 24th Street. That’s why we are so interested in this area,” said David Polinsky, Ph.D. and partner of Fortis Design + Build. “It’ll look like a complete neighborhood within three years.”

“You get a Lincoln Road-style experience but in Wynwood,” Polinsky said.

“The key demand is the customer base from tourists and new residents.”

“If you compare Wynwood to other submarkets like Brickell,” Rosen said, “Wynwood still has room to grow.”

MIAMI RETAIL AT A GLANCE

“Selling the RedBird development to local health care companies became a priority as community needs and wishes matched up with trends in the mall redevelopment business,” Brodsky said.

“That project began in 2008, and within five years of the redevelopment, the stores in the center had experienced sales increases of as much as 100%,” Mihalopoulos said.

“There’s a lot of energy right now happening across the river,” she said.

“You need to ink out the showroom to make up for the rents,” she said.

“Brickell City Centre has seen an increase with South Americans and Europeans,” she said. “Brickell City Centre will allow us to tap into both the locals and tourists, especially the Brazilian market.”

“We calculated that with longer store hours we’d be open to an equivalent of three to four months more,” Newbauer Strongin said.

“Our priority is quality of life, that’s part of an evolving economy,” Crespi said. “For Flagler, our recruitment focus has been tech companies, cafes, bars and restaurants.”

“The city has over the last few years had a renewed interest in our historic districts,” Carlos R. Lago, a member of the Land Development practice in Greenberg Traurig’s Miami office. “In general, there’s a bit of growing pains with street improvements but everyone is happy at the end.”

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